Thursday, June 09, 2005

What I want from the G8

I would like to ask the G8's leaders to show leadership, and to stop making excuses for their failure to end global poverty.

In recent years, the rhetoric in relation to international development has become increasingly warm and positive. However, there remains depressingly little evidence that the majority of the world's richest nations are prepared to commit, even a tiny proportion of their wealth, to lifting hundreds of millions of people out of abject poverty.

In 1997, the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) amounted to 0.26% of national income. Despite Gordon Brown's commendable efforts, the UK's overseas aid will only reach 0.47% of national income in 2007-2008 (approximately £6.5bn by 2008), and will take until 2012 to reach the 0.7% level.

It is now 35 years since members of UN set themselves the goal of 0.7% (recommended by the 1969 Pearson Commission report "Partners in Development"), and 5 years since almost 190 nations pledged themselves to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

The time for talk and reports is over.

It is time to provide the necesssary funds, to implement action and to co-operate for the sake of humanity's disadvantaged majority.